Hydropower dams are being promoted as sustainable development around the world, especially in tropical river basins, despite numerous warnings from scientists that the dams come with grave impacts for ecosystems, biodiversity, the rights of local communities and the global climate. Plans to build 43 large dams in the Brazilian Amazon’s Tapajós River Basin , for instance, have been the subject of much study that has shown the enormous harm to rainforest ecosystems and indigenous peoples those projects will cause. Researchers have also found that the dams emit far more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere than official reports acknowledge. Now, Dr. Lilliana Corredor, an expert in water ecosystems with a PhD on freshwater organisms from Australia’s La Trobe University and the founder of Scientists for the Mekong , wrote a report to better inform negotiators at the COP21 clima...